IT abroad: Team of physicists create “super-photon”

A team of physicists from the University of Bonn developed a totally new type of source of light, the so called Bose-Einstein condensate. Until recently, experts had thought this impossible. This method may potentially be suitable for designing novel light sources resembling lasers that work in the x-ray range. Among other applications, they might allow building more powerful computer chips.

By cooling Rubidium atoms deeply and concentrating a sufficient number of them in a compact space, they suddenly become indistinguishable. They behave like a single huge "super particle." Physicists call this a Bose-Einstein condensate.

This photonic Bose-Einstein condensate is a completely new source of light that has characteristics resembling lasers. But compared to lasers, they have a decisive advantage, "We are currently not capable of producing lasers that generate very short-wave light – i.e. in the UV or X-ray range," explained one of the researches. "With a photonic Bose-Einstein condensate this should, however, be possible."

This prospect should primarily please chip designers. They use laser light for etching logic circuits into their semiconductor materials. How fine these structures can be is limited by the wavelength of the light, among other factors. Long-wavelength lasers are less well suited to precision work than short-wavelength ones.